Working in I.B.M.'s plant in San Jose, Calif., in the 1970's and 1980's, Alida Hernandez thought she had the dream job, assembling computer disk drives for what was then the most prestigious company in the electronics industry.
Ms. Jordan, 31, had been preparing for this moment for 18 months, or maybe for her entire life, but especially throughout this summer of 14-hour workdays filled with assembling computer tables, negotiating staff contracts, collating student binders and soothing parental worries.
Before long, he was assembling computers for relatives and friends.
These companies have in the past few years moved from assembling computers for H.P. and Dell, to offering entire racks of their own servers for giant data centers.
Among the varieties of industrial equipment produced are multiple-use lathes, wire-drawing dies, and manufacturing equipment for assembling computers and other electronic devices, precision instruments, and polymer synthetics.
If the emblematic 1960s youth was an anti-Vietnam protester, and the 1980s emblem was a geek assembling computers in the garage, then today's is a kid uploading videos to YouTube to raise money for anti-malarial bed nets in Africa.
Gordon Bell, a fellow physics major who shared Dodge's hobby of assembling computers, soon became a friend.
The company employs more than 4,000 people in the Republic of Ireland, mainly assembling computers and providing technical support.
Motorola Solutions, the business and government components, made two-way radios and bar code scanners and assembled computer networks.
The large rear opening and low vehicle height make it easy to load bulky items, like the fully assembled computer desk I hauled in the Tribute.
The people at Dell asked, Why does an assembled computer have to cost five times as much as the parts that go into it?
